Inverted Microphones: Giovanni Lami’s Tapeocracy #2

The second installment in a new quarterly series dedicated to field recording and inspired by our love of tape culture. (Check out the first installment, with a long preamble from me, here.) This time it’s winter, and Gio’s live mix was produced from a house up in the Apennine Mountains.

Giovanni Lami has made a name for himself through rigorous artistic exploration of the material and conceptual properties of magnetic tape. Here he presents selections from 15 (more) artists, live mixing from tapes while also integrating ambient field recordings, both from the sounds produced from his manipulation of the tape players, and also from the sounds outside of the cabin in the mountains, including a wood-burning stove.

There are some discernible links between the tapes chosen for this mix. There are aesthetic connections, of course, but also releases from labels Lami has worked with and projects of those same label bosses released on other labels. Fellow Italian artists and labels are well represented, but Lami weaves together an international ensemble of artists and labels from Iran, France, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, the UK, Quebec, China, Australia, and yes, even the USA. There’s also a pleasing symmetry to beginning and ending the mix with tracks from a compilation of Iranian sound artists. Enjoy. (Joseph Sannicandro)

From the Artist:

Tapeocracy #2 is a live mix recorded on Feb. 15th inside an house in the Apennine Mountains. I recorded it during the days I passed last week on the Appennini up from Reggio Emilia. I set all the microphones inside the room so you can listen to the fire and the wood crackling in the stove, Daniela typing and writing on her laptop and refreshing the fire, some ringtones, etc…

Using: a tape deck, a walkman, a mixer, two ambience microphones (catching the crackles from the stove and everything happened in the room), two microphones on the devices).